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Hackney Energy is backing a petition to Hackney Council to Declare a Climate Emergency. Not just a bland statement, but backed by an action plan on how and when they will respond to this emergency. Please add your name!

A joint bid to the Mayor of London’s Community Energy Fund by Dalston-based Wilton Estate Tenants and Residents Association (WETRA) aims to install a solar array, batteries to store energy and electric vehicle charge points – backed by HE volunteers.

With greenhouse gases at an 800,000 year high, HE invites you to an Open Meeting (details here) on community solar power for Hackney…Monday 6 November from 7 to 9pm

Government cuts to the solar industry already triggered over 12,000 job losses. Now, the Treasury is planning a huge tax increase on the 23,000 commercial rooftop installations in England — thousands of offices, schools and hospitals, many of which installed solar to help save money on their energy bills. You can sign the Petition here

Try this. Type the following question into Google’s search engine: Is global warming…. After the first 6 letters, Google helpfully offers you these choices: Is global warming real? And, Is global warming a hoax? Even worse than the biased question is the stream of ‘fake news’ and climate sceptic websites you are directed to. How did the climate-denying right dominate Google’s space so effectively? It’s a bun fight out there on the web, and climate science is losing hands down.

Join us next Saturday afternoon, 10 December, at Hackney Town Hall for a couple of hours of open air debates and take on the populists denying climate change, who claim to speak in the name of ‘real people’ and rubbish climate science.

Flymageddon

The aviation industry ‘has judged itself too important to make its full contribution’ to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Instead, it’s relying on every other industry to cut their emissions, according to the highly respected Tyndall Centre for Climate Change research.

19 September, Divest Hackney will lobby the six members of the Hackney Council Pension Fund to sell off its £42 million shareholding in fossil fuel companies. There’s a strong case for action – as this blog argues – both financial and environmental. Deutsche Bank reports that companies respecting environmental and social issues ‘constantly outperform the market.’ While fossil fuel shares represent a fraction of the pension fund’s £1.1 billion assets, there’s evidence of corrupt, unsustainable or unethical business activities in this portfolio that really doesn’t sit easily with the council’s sustainable communities’ strategy.

On 19 September Divest Hackney is challenging Hackney Council’s pension’s committee to sell its shareholdings in fossil fuel companies. If we’re heading for a heated debate in the council chamber, think of this: 14 of the 15 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000. A new risk assessment from the independent Committee on Climate Change says the threat level is rising, and more action is required from local and national government. So what risks are we looking at? And is there a plan?

Globally, 14 of the 15 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000. The impacts of climate change are already being felt in the UK. Urgent action is required to address climate-related risks. So how reckless was Theresa May’s to abolish the energy and climate change department (DECC)? Just a few days earlier the government ‘promised’ to meet a tough new target to cut our greenhouse gas emissions – by 57% by 2030. Although recommended by the independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC), at best the target would be difficult to meet this target – and that was before they scrapped the energy department. So now what? If government can’t be trusted to tackle the climate crisis, isn’t it time we did so? A time for energy democracy?

Could Hackney Council do this? Swindon Borough Council has raised £1.8m for the UK’s first council solar bond a month ahead of its deadline. It’s a landmark project that could kick-start a new wave of community energy projects.

Paul Hampton’s new book opens with an arresting metaphor: “If the owl of Minerva takes flight only as dusk begins to fall, then human society may have already missed the opportunity to avoid dangerous climate change.” Minerva is the Roman name for the Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Paul writes in the hope that it is not too late, bringing a strong conviction that working people and their trade unions can play a vital role in global political efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

If ever there was a time for fresh thinking on our energy system! Great new report from Greenwich Uni sets out the environmental and democratic case – essential reading for community and trade union energy campaigners.

How much longer can we tolerate market-based climate change policies that clearly aren’t working? This is the central challenge in a new report from the New York-based Trade Unions for Energy Democracy , which puts carbon market under its intense spotlight.

Labour’s shadow energy secretary, Lisa Nandy argues that tackling climate change is “the biggest collective challenge we face as humanity.” Speaking in Hackney, she says that Labour’s challenge was to “formulate a plan to get us through to climate safety,” giving people control back over their lives.

The Chancellor said he would “put the next generation first” in his Budget strategy, yet today’s Budget speech ignored climate change and the Paris Agreement to tackle global warming. There was nothing to reboot investment in community-based renewable energy projects, badly hit by his own Treasury-led cuts.

At the last two HE meetings we have expored various ideas for Hackney Energy in 2016. All agree that what we really need is a clear goal or two – specific projects that we as a group can take forward, either as Hackney Energy, or (as with Banister House solar co-operative) where we offer our support and resources to another community energy project in the borough.

A message from the Banister interns to Mr Cameron:

Hackney Energy is a community group which supports the creation of community owned renewable energy projects.

Banister goes live!

We are happy to announce the Banister House estate project is now completed. It’s been a huge amount of work by Hackney Council, Repowering London, Banister House Solar and HE, raising £142,000 to install 100kW of solar PV.